13 Xiaotian's home

While Liushi was busy gathering appropriate materials with his pallet mover, Xiaotian was preparing diner in the living module.

They didn't have to be stingy with the meat because there was a lot of it, and it really was as good for the body as the Starseed said, because after a lunch made with that meat they felt a lot better. Xiaotian couldn't help but appreciate her current condition despite what was happening in the world. And she enjoyed the little time she spent with Liushi, for her he was easy to get along with. As they would reach her home the next day, she wondered how long that seemingly nice time would last.

Outside, after having transported the materials for the truck's repairs, Liushi gazed at his vehicle. First, he was going to enter Xiaotian's town. Afterward, he would enter Nanjing City. They are bound to have a lot of zombies, especially in Nanjing. The noise of the engine would attract them, it would make getting in or out of the vehicle difficult, and rescuing his sister much more dangerous. It would be nice to have a machine-gun take care of the swarms, at least long enough to get in or out.

He might not be good at aiming for the head at more than 10m, but a targeting program could. A program in control of an anti-infantry turret. The problem would be where to place them, and where to put the amnutions so the reloading could be made from the inside.

After thinking about it for a bit, he decided to place 2 rifle turrets at the end of the living module, just before the engineering module. One on each side, they could cover any ally trying to enter the truck, or deal with threats coming from the sides. He didn't think of placing one at the front since he would just run over the enemies. He would have to put a turret on the trailer to cover the rear. There was room under the hood for a weapon targeting the front, but Liushi reserved it for some anti-beast/anti-vehicle weapon.

The needler had the same size as a regular pistol, except it had 3 times the width around the firing chamber. The battery was at the back of the gun, and the on-off switch of the launching gears was right above it. The needle rifle was inspired from the FN P90, in that the magazine was placed above horizontally. The cartridge had a capacity of 120 rounds. The needle rifle had 4 sets of launching gears to accelerate the projectiles further, giving the weapon an effective range of 120m, and a firing rate of 5 rounds per seconds on full auto.

In the end, he only made 2 needlers and 1 needle rifle. He had to take a break to go and eat diner with Xiaotin. During the meal, he saw that she was a little tense, so when they finished he talked to her.

"You're worried about tomorrow, aren't you?"

"Ah... I guess I couldn't hide it. After what we've seen when we left Jiangbei, it would be weird if I wasn't. I'm scared. I, I just hope my family is okay..."

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Liushi sighted as he saw the beautiful young woman looking so depressed. He didn't like it, it was too different from her usual warm and charming disposition. He went to retrieve something that was left unused in one of the drawers, and presented it to her. It was a tablet.

"You need to focus on something else. Here, take this. There are plenty of music and videos I downloaded before the outbreak, as well as some games. Enjoy yourself tonight, and leave tomorrow's worries to tomorrow."

"You... I can't do this while you are going to spend the night working. Again."

"Yes, you will do it. After all, you're the one doing the driving during the day. Go on, you deserve it."

"... Thank you, brother Liushi."

He left her with the device and went back to work. He made the automated turret for the rifle at the back of the trailer, with a reload mechanism able hold up to 4 spare magazines. Once done with that, he took care of the damages on the truck.

During that time, he realised that he relied a lot on automated systems. He wondered if he could use drones to scout ahead of the Doomsday Ride, patrol the area during breaks and at night, or even explore buildings. It was true that the range would be limited. All long-range communications were nearly disabled during the outbreak. The mist released by the simultaneous mutation of all animals and plants on the planet had some jamming effects. Still, just in a 500m radius, a few drones would be quite helpfull, especially if they were armed. He put it on his "To do soon" list.

Later, he finally placed the security sensor array between the driving cockpit and the living module. He would add a hidden needler later. He upgraded the security program with a sub-program, the Gunner, who would control the turrets. It had 2 settings when dealing with enemies: "disable", which will make it target the legs, then the arms; and "terminate", which will make it target the head and the chest. The last part was differentiating between unarmed humans, armed humans, zombies and beasts. Zombies and beasts were classified as "hostiles", while humans were classified as "potential threat" until they attacked or he designated them as "enemies". Once more, Liushi was happy that the Starseed could deal with programming itself.

Before going to sleep, he checked on Xiaotian. She was fast asleep, and didn't seem to have a bad night. Watching her made him think of Zhuying. He hoped that she didn't attract the attention of zombies toward her room, or that nobody tried to force her door open while looting around. That last though made him shudder in dread, and he absentmindedly stroked Xiaotian's hairs.

She may have been asleep, but considering the circumstances, her sleep was light, so Liushi's actions woke her up. She didn't move and stayed calm, because she was still sleepy, so Liushi didn't notice. She enjoyed the feeling, and it took a moment to realise that it was Liushi. She was slightly embarrassed, but mostly gratefull and happy. She soon fell asleep again, her heart much lighter. The next day, she woke up well rested. She was still anxious about finding what happened to her family, but she was more calm, ready.

It was shortly after noon that they got near Xiaotian's hometown. It was a rural area that didn't see a lot of traffic. As such, the military was less likely to have passed there to get ressources, such as gasoline. He would be able to completly fill his fuel tank at the town station.

Xiaotian told him that the old tall and thick trees in the area had been there for decades. Every summer they would be full of white pagoda tree flowers, so a lot of beekeepers would be gathered there, selling honey on both sides of the road. But now, after doomsday, such a situation would never happen again. Liushi also saw a few broken abandoned hives on the road.

There were a few vehicles abandonned on the side of the roads as they entered the town. Surprisingly, there weren't a lot of zombies visible. Instead of making him rejoice, it confused him. They reached an intersection, in which there was a noodle restaurant and several cars parked on the road. One of the cars had hit on a light pole, and its windshield was completely broken with scabs. They could only speculate if the driver was killed directly, or eaten by zombies.

"My home... It's about 200 meters in the alley," Wen Xiaotian said nervously.

Seeing what the place she grew up in had become was depressing for her. Liushi glanced at her, and gently stroked her shoulder. She gave him a gratefull smile and continued to drive. They soon reached her house, and Xiaotian stopped the truck. However, when she tried to get out, Liushi motioned to stay where they were.

"What... What's wrong?"

"It's so quiet… A small town at least with a population of 30,000 or 40,000 people... The center of the town was the most densely populated, with thousands of people coming together, but now there are very few zombies on the road. There is something wrong with this town."

"Yes... You're right."

"The number of zombies was not much; even the road congestion was strange. The sudden accident should have blocked up the road, but instead it could be used."

"So... Was it the army?"

"I'm afraid not... But we'll find out soon."